Re: LZ: a zipping utility
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Re: LZ: a zipping utility
On Sun, 1 Sep 1996, Tony Lieuallen wrote:
> On Sat, 31 Aug 1996, Scott J. Rein wrote:
>
> > Now that would be cool. In fact, it makes a lot of sense, and probably
> > wouldn't be that hard. I mean, with a little knowledge of compression, you
> > should be able to read in a program's string and compress it into another
> > string.
> >
> > The only problem with this, is the temporary space required to compress it
> > (you would be making a second copy of the same program!).
>
> It has been discussed before, and decided that between the size for the
> decompression program, and then the space you would have to keep free for the
> program to uncompress into that it would be way more work than it's worth.
> Personally I agree, but anyone that can program ZShell, do it. I'd love to be
> proven wrong.
In the case of a program that is compressed, if the programs are
moved into a transient area for execution, there is no problem.
If they're executed in place, then the utility of this would depend
on how much space is being saved by the compression.
If the average user has 5 2k zshell programs stored and they're
compressed 60%, that's a savings of 6k that can be used by
non-zshell programs. Zshell programs would have a little
more space to run in, too. I have no idea if the average
user has 5 2k zshell programs on board.
I just made up these numbers. 6k is a fair amount of ram
to save in a 32k system, if these numbers are anything like real.
Does anyone have any ideas about the size and number of programs
users carry with them?
My personal preference would be to keep things simple. But then,
this calc is a toy for me, not a tool. I think it's a tool for
most users.
Barry
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